Imperfect Balance
by Zaperex
Summary: Whitekit and Darkkit are meant to be opposites in order to help balance the prophecy they're part of... But they aren't. Their only chance is a gift sent from Starclan, the ability to have visions of the future and past. Notes: AU, time-travel
1. Whitekit

Disclaimer: Warriors belongs to Erin Hunter and HarperCollins.

Whitekit felt a paw prodding his side and groggily opened one eye. "What is it?"

"Come on, get up, you lazy furball!" yowled the loud voice of his brother, Darkkit.

"Hey!" complained Whitekit as he felt a hard poke from his sibling. "Alright! I'm up! I'm up!" Whitekit sat up and upon meeting Darkkit's gaze, he shot a glare at his irritating sibling.

"That's quite enough, you two," meowed their mother, worried they would get into a fight. "Now why don't you go play outside?"

Darkkit's eyes lit up at the suggestion and he beamed at his mother. "Yeah!" mewed the kit. Whitekit rolled his eyes but went along with his brother to go play, he wasn't one to hold grudges, after all. The two kits climbed out of the nursery.

"Let's play, Whitekit!" said Darkkit.

A pretty light grey tabby kitten with long hair poked her head out of the nursery. "Can I play too?" mewed the small she-cat.

"Sure you can, Featherkit!" answered Darkkit immediately. They ended up playing moss ball by the fresh kill pile, to the annoyance of anyone eating nearby.

"Catch it, catch it, Darkkit!" yelled Featherkit as she passed the moss ball to him. The small dark coloured kit jumped up and reached for it but as he went to catch it, a border patrol returned and Darkkit made a noise of horror and the ball was quickly forgotten. At the feet of the patrol lay the body of a grey warrior, his body covered in cuts, fur matted with blood. The rest of the patrol had wounds as well and some where sent away either to see the medicine cat, Leaffrost or to rest.

The three kits backed away from the body. But while Featherkit and Darkkit had long turned away from the sight, Whitekit didn't and among the warriors talking to the deputy and leader, the pretty golden she-cat and older light grey one who were mourning and the busy apprentices doing training, he was the single cat to see and actually pay attention to something shooting through the sky. Whitekit was confused. He thought for a while. 'It _looks_ like a shooting star but our parents said they only appear at night... Maybe-what if-perhaps... A sign? For Leaffrost! Yeah, that makes sense! But I don't think the she saw it... Well, I guess Starclan will just have to send another later.' But as he was finishing up his theory, Whitekit felt a jolt, as if he had been shocked and he saw only bright, white light. The light became silvery and began to fade.

The young kit was frightened, because he thought he'd been blinded but as the light dimmed they formed blurry shapes, flickering uncertainly. The shapes changed from silver to having colour and then they progressed further until they formed what looked like one blurry picture. When the picture sharpen so Whitekit could see more than smudgy shapes, he gasped. It was the patrol of warriors with the body, exactly how he saw them a few minutes ago.

The picture began to move and Whitekit could even hear them. Then it changed to another scene where a grey kit who looked uncannily similar to the dead warrior was playing with three other kits. It played with the other kits happily, making joyful mews as they played. Whitekit realized he was having a "vision", as they call it.

He saw the kit become an apprentice, heard the chants, loud and clear. Whitekit was pretty sure that "Stormpaw! Stormpaw!" would be ringing in his ears for the rest of the day. Then him learning to hunt- Although it was a guess since he didn't really know how they trained apprentices, having not been one himself yet. An assessment, perhaps from what he heard. A warrior's ceremony. "Stormpelt! Stormpelt!" Then a border patrol- 'Wait a minute...' thought Whitekit. 'That's the dead tom!' Whitekit felt a pang of fear. 'What's going on?" Then a badger, from what the warriors had described to him about a moon ago... Battle cries. Fighting. Blood. Before long the tom and the badger both lay dead on the ground. Cries of grief. Then the vision faded and Whitekit woke up in Leaffrost's den.

"Whitekit! Whitekit!" cried Darkkit. "Are you okay?" The small silver kit opened his mouth to reply but made no noise.

"What's the matter, Whitekit?" asked Leaffrost as she came to tend to her now awake patient.

"I.. can't... t-t-al-talk... good." he managed to mumble. His brother looked at him with concern.

"Why?"

"Do-Don't kn..ow."

"Check on him, Leaffrost!" demanded the small dark grey kit. Leaffrost complied, asking Darkkit to open his mouth. Finding nothing wrong, the medicine cat sighed and went to speak with their mother.

"Darkkit... I saw.. things."

"What things?" the dark furred kit was extremely curious.

"The d-de-de-dead cat... Then... I-I s-saw... stuff." Whitekit felt embarrassed for not being able to speak properly.

"What _kind _of stuff?"

"Just... stuff." he said, voice barely above a whisper. His brother huffed, disappointed and slightly peeved but left the topic anyways.

-Author's Note: First story, kindly edited by Cinwan! Sorry if it doesn't meet your standards, hopefully I shall gain more experience as I continue writing. Constructive criticism appreciated, flames not as much although at least they're still something. Please if you find any errors, notify me. Next chapter will hopefully be up by the next week or so, no promises though! :P Alright, sorry for the long author's note but yeah, thanks.


	2. Darkkit

Disclaimer: Warriors belongs to Erin Hunter and HarperCollins.

Over the course of the next moon Whitekit became completely mute. He often sat staring at the stars at night with a look on his face that Darkkit never could deciphered. Darkkit had begun feeling detached from his littermate and wished for the old times back. Something had changed when Whitekit saw the warrior who Darkkit learned was named Stormpelt and he had become a warrior only two moons or so before Darkkit and Whitekit were born. But Darkkit was pretty sure that Whitekit didn't even know the warrior.

He went over to the fresh kill pile and grabbed a mouse for him and Whitekit. Then, a shooting star soared through the sky. It seemed meaningful, somehow. Was it Starclan? Suddenly, his sight became darker and darker until he saw only pitch black. Darkkit found himself rooted to the spot, unable to even panic. Was he blind? What was going on? The darkness brightened to a dim silver. He saw the mouse he had been taking to eat. Then the mouse running through grass, still alive. It nibbled on some seeds. He heard light crunching noises of pawsteps. The mouse did as well and it bolted away. He saw Brownpaw, a apprentice he knew, and was chasing after it, a brown blur as fast as lightning! Darkkit realized that he was having a vision! The young tom killed the mouse in one blow and had a look of pride on his face, matching what Darkkit was feeling. Him, just a normal kit was having a vision like Leaffrost or Swampstar...

The pictures disappeared, and similarly to Whitekit's experience, the kit found himself in the medicine den, with the brown she-cat leaning over him. "He's awake." she commented. Whitekit who he noticed had been at his side came and the smaller dark coloured kit saw both in his eyes along with... hope?

"W-Whi-Whitekit..." he stuttered. A frown stretched across his face and he felt a bit of panic. Was he going mute as well? 'Wait...' he thought. 'What if... What if Whitekit had a vision too? He remembered that after waking up, his brother told him he "saw things".' After all, the situation was pretty much the same thing, as if they'd gone back in time and gotten switched around, except that Whitekit was still mute. "I... saw thi-things. So.. Y-you saw things... too? R-Right?" At this, the larger white kit nodded, happy his brother understood him. Darkkit felt closer than ever to his littermate now, closer than anyone. "W-well," he said. "T-Then I guess... It wo-would-wouldn't be too bad, be-being m-mute, then, huh?" He was given a sad look from his sibling along with a nearly unnoticeable but present shaking of his head, saying no.

Whitekit was right. Being mute was harder than he thought it would be. The moment they left Leaffrost's den, Darkkit began receiving looks of pity, looks which only increased once he completely lost his voice. Their parents looked more miserable as each day gone by, although they had told both of them they had long accepted it. By the time the littermates were apprentices, the pity had thankfully disappeared. But it was not very long before it was replaced with something else that was much worse. They were thought as uncapable and unintelligent, useless burdens. Soon even Featherpaw and their mentors began to scorn them.

-Line Break-

"Get up." the voice of Darkpaw's mentor was icy, but the apprentice, still sleepy, only shifted in his nest. "_Get up._" she growled, voice even harsher. Reluctantly, the dark grey apprentice got to his feet, not looking forward to another training session with Mistcloud, a cruel and beautiful but shallow she-cat. Whitepaw got the better of the two, he was trained by Flamefoot, a tom who would just ignore him for most of the time and train him when he was told to for about 5 minutes before dismissing him. It wasn't too pleasant but compared to _his_ luck, his brother had the best mentor in all of Thunderclan. After a while of the same treatment, the siblings had begun to go spy on other training sessions in order to actually learn. In the nest next to him, Whitepaw seemed to continue sleeping although Darkpaw knew he was faking it.

"Darkpaw! Are you listening to me, you worthless piece of fox dung?" The apprentice snapped out of his thoughts and managed to nod. "Oh? Then repeat the last two sentences I said." Darkpaw knew what she wanted and so, opened his mouth like he was speaking and waited. After a few seconds, he got a cold, haughty laugh like he expected. " What? Can't? Mouse-brained mute-You're worse than a kit!" Darkpaw felt hurt but long stopped flinching to the disappointment of Mistcloud. "Just come, today we're having another training session with Cherrypaw, I can't wait for her to beat you." said the light grey she-cat. They left for the Sandy Hollow.

-Line Break-

When Darkpaw came back, he had a long scratch on his face, Cherrypaw had unsheathed her claws once to get an advantage while their mentors pretended not to notice. Whitepaw was waiting by the apprentice den for him. He tilted his head. It was his way of saying 'Well?' and he always asked, everyday.

Darkpaw flashed a small grin and unsheathed his claws for a moment, clawing the air before puffing out his chest. They had a communication system of some sorts, a simple one but still rather useful. He had beaten Cherrypaw, their 'self-training sessions' had began to work and Darkpaw had used one to trick the dark red coloured apprentice and pin her down. The mentors were'nt very happy about it and Cherrypaw even accused him of cheating but in the end, they couldn't do anything about it. However, Cherrypaw had made sure to rub it into his face that she was going to the gathering and he wasn't.

Whitepaw gave him a grin in reply as to compliment him before shrugging and shifting into a basic hunter's crouch then toppling over. Darkpaw gave him a friendly nudge and they headed into the empty den. They were the only apprentices not going to the gathering and so, although they were disappointed, Darkpaw and Whitepaw at least got to avoid the disgusted and arrogant looks from their 'fellow' apprentices. As he settled into his nest, Darkpaw readied himself for another rude awakening the next sunrise. Side by side, under the full moon they slept once more.


End file.
